Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany

This book analyzes postwar Germany to show how social movements shape public memory and influence democratization through cooperation and conflict with government.

Jenny Wüstenberg (Author)

9781316628379, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 December 2018

354 pages, 36 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 2.1 cm, 0.52 kg

'This absorbing and carefully researched book has clearly been a labour of love for its author. It will be of interest to students and researchers in an array of disciplines, including History, Sociology, Politics, Museum Studies, Geography, German Studies and Cultural Studies. As we approach the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Wustenberg's fascinating research on memory activists is a timely reminder of the importance for our contemporary society of confronting and memorializing difficult pasts.' Deirdre Byrnes, European History Quarterly

Blending history and social science, this book tracks the role of social movements in shaping German public memory and values since 1945. Drawn from extensive original research, it offers a fresh perspective on the evolution of German democracy through civic confrontation with the violence of its past. Told through the stories of memory activists, the study upends some of the conventional wisdom about modern German political history. An analysis of the decades-long struggle over memory and democracy shows how grassroots actors challenged and then took over public institutions of memorialization. In the process, confrontation of the Holocaust has been pushed to the centre of political culture. In unified Germany, memory politics have shifted again, as activists from East Germany have brought attention to the crimes of the East German state. This book delivers a novel and important contribution to scholarship about postwar Germany and the wider study of memory politics.

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and German terms
1. Civil society activism, memory politics and democracy
2. Memorial politics and civil society since 1945
3. Building negative memory: civic initiatives for memorials to Nazi terror
4. Dig where you stand: the History Movement and grassroots memorialization
5. Memorial aesthetics and the memory movements of the 1980s
6. A part of history that continues to smolder: remembering East Germany from below
7. Hybrid memorial institutions and democratic memory
Interviews
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Regional government [JPR], Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Comparative politics [JPB], European history [HBJD]